help with concrete slab !!

i have a very large concrete slab 25ft x 20ft in my garden . my garden is on 2 levels and i whould like to bring the higher level down to the lower thus createing a large flat grass lawn could i do this without having to remove the concrete slab...?

im unsure why the land was a quary and is full of sandstone and i think when they built the house over 100yrs ago the dugg out a patch to put the houses so i have this concrete slab that used to be a large garage base and it slopes up to the back of the garden and then around the side of the house ... its such a pain as i have to small children and are worried about the drop to the lower level. i will take some pictures to show you ...you will see what i mean

I've turfed over small areas of concrete. That works. The only problem is that a shallow depth of soil dries out quickly, so in dry weather it needs watering. The depth of soil I was using was only a couple of inches.

Removing the concrete seems a better long-term solution, then the area could be used for growing other things, at a later date, if anyone else ever wanted to.

If it's the base of a fomer building then you might want to consider what lies beneath the concrete - hardcore, rubble? What's going to happen to that.

i do have a patio close to the house so i whould be extending over this concrete in effect .. it was the hight of the top lawn area i was worried about tbh with the children and yes my job the men in my home dont do diy or gardening ..hehe

Id put down bark or, we lifted a concrete found from an old garage. We were amazed how easy a job it was. We used a 5lb hammer and a wheelbarrow, it came up in big chunks and was only 6 - 8 inches or so deep, very satisfying it really didnt take long we were ready for top soil by the end of the day.

From the photo your garden is full of potential, and I love the fact that you have different levels. Unless your children have mobility problems, I don't think you need to worry about the different levels - they have the flat concrete to push wheeled toys about on, set out toy farms, race tracks and all sorts of other toys, and a grassy area for a different sort of play. I can see they've got swings up there under the trees. Believe it or not they don't stay toddlers for long, and learning to cope with slopes, steps and uneven ground will add to their mobility. I think your garden looks idyllic for a family.

If you tried to level it off, by moving soil from the higher level to cover the slab, you'd encounter the roots of those big trees you have on your boundary. Uncovering them may make them unstable. As it is those trees provide a lovely windbreak and I'm sure you must have lots of birds and a hedgehog or two living there. All wonderful ways of introducing your children to Nature as they grow up.

Also, changing the levels of your garden to that degree is likely to affect the soil structure and water table causing drainage problems which could also damage the trees either by drying them out when removing soil, or waterlogging by raising the lower level, or both - I would have thought it a good idea to get advice from a landscape engineer before starting on a project like that.

From the photos I can't see anywhere that I'd be worried about small children falling down the bank - they could only do that if they were in the flower beds around the concrete slab, and while they're that little they're not going to be playing out there unsupervised are they, and if they go into the flower beds you're going to move them and tell them gently not to and that's how they'll learn not to walk on flower beds

When they're bigger they'll know not to go in the flower beds so won't be in danger of falling down the slope.

The advantages of having a large area of concrete which will dry quickly after rain so the children can play outside are immense - when they've grown too big to 'play in the garden' there are lots of possibilities if you want to change the layout of the whole garden - you could terrace the whole area maybe?

But you'd have to break up and remove the concrete and the hardcore etc which presumably is underneath it. Please don't try to put soil on top of concrete - all that effort will be wasted as the area won't drain properly and I don't think it would be stable.

If you're really worried about them falling and bumping their heads on the concrete while they're very little, you could look into buying some of those rubber play mats, or even have the area covered with a permanent safe surface http://www.softsurfaces.co.uk/ but I've no idea how much that would cost and to be honest I think that would be a little extreme in a normal family garden - but of course necessary if a child had a condition like an abnormally fragile skull, brittle bones, or drop seizures or something which increased the risk.

As I said I think your garden is lovely and very similar to the one we had when my children were small, except our flat area was at the top and there were several different levels going down the hill to a stream at the bottom - we fenced them out of that bit until they were around 9 or 10 and had showed they could be trusted - then Daddy showed them how to dam the stream and flood the neighbour's garden, but that's another story